Five times Tony Stark was sure he hated Steve Rogers
by Majinie
Summary: ...and one time he really wasn't. [Steve x Tony]


Five times Tony Stark was sure he hated Steve Rogers

(...and one time he wasn't)

1\. On the helicarrier

"Big man in a suit of armour. Take that off, what are you?" Rogers' voice was sharp and disdainful.

"A genius billionaire playboy philanthropist", Tony replied calmly, without missing a beat. His voice was levelled and not betraying any emotion.

This was not how how he had imagined his first real conversation with his childhood hero. When he had heard that Captain America, _the_ Captain America was alive, he had imagined his idol, a hero, a kind, gentle, patient person.

He had _so_ shattered his world view.

"I know guys with none of that worth ten you." Not _this_. "I have seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself." They had met not even an hour ago and the guy was _judging_ him. "You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play. To lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

"I think I would just cut the wire", Tony snapped. This was outright ridiculous.

"Always a way out." Of course, he was a genius. "You know, you may not be a threat but you better stop pretending to be a hero." Now _this_ was it.

"A hero?", the engineer repeated, almost incredulous. "Like you?" His words were dripping with venom. "You are a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about _you_ came out of a bottle."

2\. At pretty much _every_ debriefing

"That was absolutely stupid!"

"It was necessary!"

"It was reckless!"

"I didn't have a choice!"

"Of course you did!"

"Yeah, I could've let her die!"

"You could have waited for backup!"

"I didn't have the fucking _time_ to wait!"

"Stark, Rogers, enough!", Fury chimed in. "Rogers, he's still alive, so no damage done. And Stark, use your brain the next time _before_ you fly into a collapsing building."

Tony leaned back in his chair, arms crossed in front of his chest and his jaw clenched so hard it hurt. He didn't look at the SHIELD agents, but met the Captain's glare just as stubbornly as the other did.

 _You're not my mother, Rogers_ , he spat mentally. Although he didn't raise his voice, the message seemed to get across because the blonde huffed, arms crossed as well, and turned back to Fury.

3\. When Fury is a prick and Steve goes with it

"You want us to what?!" Steve stared at Fury as if the agent had just told him his next mission was to burn a dozen little puppies. "No way!"

"Oh, c'mon Cap, I'm not that bad", Tony said. The Captain directed his look of doom towards the engineer and growled: "You shut up!" Then he turned back to Fury and continued: "With all my respect, director, I refuse to move in with Stark!"

"It's essential for the team bonding!", the director responded. "You can't go on like this, to be a team you've gotta get along with each other and that's 'bout 200 percent sure _not_ the case here!"

"I doubt", Tony interrupted, "that that's a solution. We're more likely going to kill each other than improve the team bonding. Besides, it's my tower, so how comes I don't get to say anything on this?"

"It's not like there aren't twenty empty floors in that tower", Fury replied.

The owner of said tower rolled his eyes. "Point taken." He leaned forward and rested his arms on the table. "But that's not _the_ point. Ever thought about me just not _wanting_ them under my roof?"

"I hate to admit it", Steve added, "but he's right. I'm not going to move in with Stark because, seriously, I don't need to know how many women he brings home every week."

"At the moment? Two or three at most", Tony shot back without missing a beat. "I don't think that's the problem. Just say aloud that you think I'm an arrogant asshole."

"Fine", the soldier replied and leaned back in his chair. "Tony Stark is an arrogant asshole and therefore I'm not going to move in with him."

4\. When Steve judges him (again)

In the end, the Avengers did move in. Steve did, too. Tony hated it from the first day.

"Stark, stop drinking." The engineer raised his eyebrows and took a particularly long sip from his scotch glass, emptying it in the progress. "That's your third shot."

"Wrong." He picked up the bottle and poured himself a new glass. "My fourth."

"If you go on a mission hungover again, I'll..."

"You'll what? Call my daddy? Bad idea, 'cause my dad's dead. And he was an asshole anyway." He took another sip and almost choked on it at Steve's next words.

"Maybe you were just a terrible son."

Coughing, he looked up at the soldier.

"Are you kidding me?! My father was –"

"– a genius and my friend, so be a little careful with what you say!", Steve snapped.

"You didn't know him like I know him", the millionaire shot back. He didn't give the other a chance to speak up again. "He never cared, he was so wrapped up in his own world he didn't even notice me unless he was yelling at me. He didn't even try to be a good father because it didn't interest him the least bit! You know what I was? I was his _creation_ , that's what he called me. I was nothing more to him than one of his machines."

"You say he didn't try to be a good father, but did you ever try to be a good son?"

Tony threw his hands up and spilled some of his scotch.

"For fuck's sake, Rogers, I did nothing but when I was a child! I built my first circuit when I was four, do you think I got a praise? Ha! No matter what I did to impress him, he didn't give a fuck. I'm sure you already saw Dummy, d'you wanna know why I built him? It was because I wanted company, better company than my _father's._ It wasn't even that he was a particularly bad father, no, he was just no father at all, he was a businessman. That never changed. Never." Tony leaned back and took another sip out of his glass. "Now get out, Rogers."

When Steve left the room, he was quiet, seemingly deep in thought. Look whose world view was shattered _now_.

5\. When Steve's got _that_ look

At some point, Steve stopped telling Tony when he had – in _his_ opinion – screwed up, wronged someone, been stupid and whatsoever. Well, he stopped telling him _verbally_. But he still got his Captain-America-is-deeply-disappointed-by-your-behaviour-look. The go-into-your-shame-corner-and-never-come-out-look. The I-thought-you-were-better-than-this-look.

And really, that was worse than any insult he could've thrown at him. Because somehow, he was still Tony's childhood hero, the one he looked up to. Which he would never admit, of course.

"Rogers, would you stop it?" The soldier didn't cease his movement, cutting potatoes into neat, little slices. He also did _not_ take his today's-look-of-choice-to-piss-Tony-off-glance off the millionaire who sat on the opposite side of the table, StarkPad in one hand, glass of wine in the other.

"Stop what?"

"Stop _that_. Stop looking at me like that."

"Then stop drinking."

The engineer huffed and just to protest, he raised the glass of (indeed very fine) wine to his lips as a response. He would be followed by the Look of Doom for the rest of his life, he should get used to it.

Ah, no, wait. He was not planning to spend the rest of his life with Steve.

But for now, he couldn't escape it. He got The Look when he was disrespectful (to use Steve's vocabulary – Tony usually called it sassy) during debriefings, when he dumped one-night-stands, when he didn't eat regularly, when he was rude, when – get the point?

Tony hated it. He hated feeling judged, hated to have to explain his actions, hated not feeling at home in his own tower any more.

He was pretty sure he hated Steve Rogers.

+1 When Steve does not do any of the above

"Stark, don't you _dare_!", Steve shouted over the comm. "Don't you dare fly in there! We can't follow you, it's not safe. _Stark_. If you don't stop _this instant,_ I will..."

"...throw away my scotch?", the engineer suggested. "No big deal, I'll buy new one."

"Iron Man, as the team leader I order you to –"

Tony turned off his comm.

"Sir, are you sure this is a wise idea?", JARVIS asked, calm and gentle as ever.

"Not at all", the engineer replied while he did a sharp turn and flew right into Victor van Doom's castle.

Four hours later, Tony landed (crashed) on the roof of Stark Tower with the last five percent of energy his suit had left. He laid there for about a minute before he could muster the strength to manually open the suit and start peeling off the parts.

It was dark already and a quiet rain tapped the rooftops and mixed with the sweat and blood the engineer's body was already soaked with.

He left the armour on the roof and stumbled towards the door, just one mechanical little device clutched tightly to his chest. All he wanted to do now was sleep. Long. Possibly a little longer. Maybe forever.

But of course (blame Murphy's law), when he entered the penthouse, he had to run into Steve. The captain was sitting on one of the couches and jumped to his feet when he spotted the other.

"Stark, you –"

"No." Tony raised a hand, showing the piece of technology in it. "Just don't. I've got what I wanted, it's not a danger anymore, and now I'm tired and I just wanna go to sleep, _please._ Debrief me tomorrow, I'll pretend to listen, I promise."

While he had been speaking, Steve had approached him.

"Tony", he sighed while he closed the last two steps between them (wait a minute, first-name basis? When did that happen?) "God, Tony." He reached out and before the millionaire had the chance to reply or protest, he was pulled against the soldier's chest into an almost painfully tight hug. "Don't you dare do that _ever_ again."

For a moment, Tony was stiff. Rigid. But then his exhaustion and the little – really, just a little – spark of relief that Steve was _not_ angry won the upper hand and he exhaled the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, relaxed against the other's broad form. He refused to think about the 'why' just now, he was too tired to seek for answers. For once, he just accepted being held and feeling content, safe, and even comfortable.

After a way too short while, Steve pulled away, although his hands remained on the engineer's shoulders.

"I'm not going to tell you that you were stupid, reckless and selfish", he said, his voice unusually soft, "because you wouldn't listen anyway." Tony shrugged and grinned weakly. "Just don't do it again, okay?"

"Since you asked so nicely", the millionaire replied and allowed himself to lean forward again. He already knew he would hate himself for this display of weakness later, but later was not now and _now_ , he was too tired to care.

Steve chuckled quietly and before he knew what was happening, Tony felt himself being lifted from the floor. He yelped and his aching legs, although screaming protest, wrapped themselves around the soldier's waist in a reflexive motion, just as his arms came up to cling to the other's neck.

"What the – what are you doing?!", he demanded and felt his whole body vibrate with Steve's laughter.

"Taking you to bed, seeing that you obviously won't make it on your own", he replied and Tony sighed and let his head rest on Steve's shoulder.

"Why?", he asked quietly, his eyes almost closed while he felt Steve moving towards his bedroom.

"Didn't I just tell you?"

"No, I mean all of this. In general. Why did you wait instead of going to bed or something?"

"Because I care about you", the soldier replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You're part of my team and I refuse to lose someone because I'm careless. Again." Distantly, Tony remembered what he had read about Bucky, but he decided not to ask about that topic just now. _Too tired_. "Did you think I told you to stop drinking just to annoy you?"

"Well, um, yes. Actually." The engineer felt how Steve pushed the bedroom door open with his foot and heard him sigh, shaking his head.

A few seconds later, Tony was being laid down on the soft sheets and the captain started tugging on his shoes, pulling one off.

"Thanks, I guess", the millionaire murmured. He felt the other cease in his movement for a second before he removed the second shoe as well.

"Anytime, Tony." He pulled a blanket over Tony's exhausted body and turned away to make his leave.

"But, Steve?", the engineer stopped him. There they were. First name basis.

"Yes?"

"Don't you assume I like you just yet."

"Not yet, but perhaps someday in the future?", Steve asked.

"Perhaps."

"Then that's good enough for me."


End file.
